Sunday, January 7, 2007

te casan review

there is a new shoe store called te casan on w. broadway and grand-ish which normally wouldn't grab my attention in the shoe saturated soho neighborhood of nyc. but this place opened with a rather unique concept.

Té Casan opened the doors of its New York flagship store at 382 West Broadway - in the heart of Soho. The tri-level, 7500 square foot space was designed as an exclusive “retreat” for women, offering a full range of hand-crafted, limited edition footwear at “attainable” luxury price points.

The brand’s seven emerging designers, which have designed footwear that range in scope from high-end trainers to crystal-encrusted stilettos, have been designated space on specific floors to artfully showcase their individual collections. Signature features unique to the space include a specialty tea bar and custom-made fitting booth(s). Té casan will introduce new silhouettes to the store on a weekly basis to ensure the look of the collection and each visitor’s experience remains fresh and exciting.

Té casan values its clientele and offers a premium level of hands-on customer service designed to take the customer shopping experience to the next level.

i took a visit and overall, i think i like it?the reasonable prices, seemingly high quality spanish construction, the unique designs, the individual designer boutique w/in a larger space idea.

the tea room, seems silly. i mean can you think of store where that ever actually works? ok maybe nicole's at nicole farhi, but that's different. when you are in a shoe store you are shopping for shoes if you wanted tea or coffee you stopped at balthazar/starbucks/dean & deluca earlier.

for those of you who know me, you know i am not a fan of anything HUGE especially when it comes to restaurants and i guess that goes for shoe stores too. so the tri-level and 7500 square feet part is not so appealing for me. the pragmatic business women in me could stop thinking, "that's A LOT of rent and that's a lot of shoe selling per square foot". too much space, too much energy to light/heat/cool, keep clean, fill, too much.

i do like the idea of "premium level customer service". its hard to get any sort of question answered in most new york shops so i appreciate a bit of attention. BUT, the salesman at te casan literally followed me around the store (all three floors, paused when i paused, moved when i moved), went to the stock room to get shoes i hadn't asked for and when it came time to check out, he had me sit where i was while he swiped my card and delivered the receipt?

note. i did buy a pair of shoes. or actually uluru did for the fall/winter 2007 photo shoot later this month. i have been playing with masculine-feminine juxtaposition (not to be confused with androgyny) and these shoes are exactly what i have been looking for. thankfully most models have large feet like me and the shoes become mine!